Monday, September 26, 2016

Presidents Cup 2016

The 3rd Presidents Cup was held in Edinburgh on
September 25th in the famous Meadow Bank Stadium. This event is
organised by the Commonwealth Sambo Association supported by the British Sombo
Federation, Scottish Sombo Federation and FIAS. The purpose of the event is to
take it to different parts of the Country to highlight and show case Sambo in
its two different formats Sport Sambo and Combat Sambo. The first year it was
held in Dartford, followed by Manchester both were very Successful.

Holding in Scotland was a risk as the Country did not have
the following like its English counter part. Scottish President Robin Hyslop started
the ball rolling by organising a very successful Scottish Sambo Open a few
months prior to the event attracting over 100 players.

What the President Cup
did do was to bring to Scotland a major International Sambo tournament
featuring a team from Russia which highlighted the Sport in Scotland, this
created a great deal of interest in the Press and media which was very apparent
at the Press Conference held on the Saturday morning.

Martin Clarke with Princess Katrina

The event could not have functioned without the hard work
done by FIAS World coordinator Andrew Moshanov; he and his team were
outstanding and made the whole event a great Success.

Andrew Moshanov

This event always attracts many dignitaries such as Her
Royal highness Princess Katarina , FIAS President and Duma MP Vasily Shestakov,
Michael Wynn Parker President CSA, Eliseev Sergey President ESF, Roberto
Ferraris General Secretary FIAS, Martin Clarke BSF President Sir Maurice Allan
first GB World Champion 1975. This shows the importance of the event and how
FIAS rate Great Britain’s involvement in International Sambo.

Sir Maurice Allan with BSF Honorary President Valerie Clarke

A full report on the actual matches will be released at a
later date what I can say this was a very hard tournament,. The teams for Sport
Sambo were dropped from 8 to 6 this year to make room for the Combat Sambo
Grand Slam. Scotland were pooled against Holland and Spain, I personally
thought they were in spot to make the final but I was shocked by the standard of
the other two teams.Both Teams had
obviously taken this competition very seriously and produced some really top
quality competitors, sadly Scotland lost to Holland 5 to 2 and Spain 4 to 3 but
that is not to say the Scottish team did not fight hard they certainly did and
Scott Imrie look like one of the best players of the day in the whole
competition. With his famous Scottish Judo Coach Father John Imrie taking
charge I am sure we will see a lot more quality Sambo players coming from
Scotland.

Vasily Shestakov

The final was between Russia v Holland; this was to prove an exciting
match, as the Russians were at best their 3rd string. Although the
Russian Team won they did lose a fight to the Dutch the first time in this
event that has happened and all the other matches on the whole were close
fought so well done to both teams

Martin with famous Judo Sambo Player Richard Kenny

The Combat Sambo grand slam proved very popular and it was a
proud moment for GB Combat Sambo Coach Matt Clempner Senior when his son Matt
Junior won the Grand Slam Belt in the u90 kilo class. Matt is no stranger to
the competitive grappling world, he has been an International Judo Player,
World Sambo Bronze Medallist and is now making his mark in the world of Cage
Fighting

BSF Combat Sambo Coach MattClempner Senior

So what of the Future well talk is of next years event being
in Wales or Northern Ireland, it was also suggested putting the Presidents Cup
over the same week as the British Open. Can you imagine that the Presidents Cup
on the Saturday and the British Open on the Sunday with all the fighters from
the Cup competing that would be some spectacular event? Also robin Hyslop and
John Clarke are suggesting we have annual Scotland v England Team event in both
Sport and Combat Sambo competing for the British Sambo Cup

It is interesting that I was asked at the Press Conference
when will GB see another World Medallist? My answer was simple “MONEY” UKSport
will not fund non Olympic Sport in fact even Olympic Sports who do not win
medals struggle to get funding UKSport seem obsessed with winning Olympic
medals and making some athletes millionaires, they forget Sport needs
participation at all levels and funding should be available to everyone not
just a few Olympians the old Sports Council used to have a saying “Sport for
All” let hope we return to that ethos. So our way forward is to get a large sponsor
easier said then done. The BSF has had help from FIAS and the Russian
Federation which we are grateful for.

Matt Clempner

In past events the British Team has taken Silver and Bronze
our team consisted of both English and Scottish so we are stronger together
lets keep it that way